Amorphous NiP supported on rGO for superior hydrogen generation from hydrolysis of ammonia borane

Transition metal phosphide based amorphous NiP/rGO hybrids have been successfully synthesized through a facile one-pot co-reduction method. The prepared NiP/rGO hybrids are characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and energy dispersive X-ray detector (EDX) techniques. Compared with Ni/rGO, the resulted Ni91P9/rGO hybrid exhibits superior catalytic activity toward hydrogen generation from hydrolysis of ammonia borane (NH3BH3), with turnover frequency (TOF) value of 13.3 min−1. The activation energy (Ea) of Ni91P9/rGO for this reaction is calculated to be 34.7 kJ mol−1, which is much lower than those of the other reported catalysts. This superior catalytic performance may be due to the good dispersibility of Ni91P9 nanoparticles and the synergistic electronic interactions between nickel and phosphorus.